Method of and apparatus for handling, storing, and measuring bulk material into batches



Sept. 4, 1928. 1,682,872

W. M. VENABLE. METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR HANDLING, STORING, AND

MEASURING BULK MATERIAL INTO BATCHES Filed June 5, 1924 5 Sheets-Sheet ATTORNEY- Sept. ,4, 1928. 4 1,682,872

' W. M. VENABLE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR HANDLING, STORING, AND

MEASURING BULK MATERIAL INTO BATCHES Filed June 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ig/Z.

Sept. 4,1928. 1,682,872

W. M. VENABLE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR HANDLING, STORING, AND

MEASURING BULK MATERIAL INTO BATCHES Filed June 5, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 /96! J w A! 1 g2 l6zz 1 /6 [6 V6 INVENTOR m/vfss 31IE3IIEEHUIEIIEIEHEIIIUI v I 49 D V awe Sep .4. 1928- UNITED: STATES PATENT oer ice- Y wmnrm mayo vmunnn, on rrr'rsnunen, rnnnsrnvnnm, nssrenon T unawxnox comm,- A conPonATIoN on NEW JERSEY,

ninrnon or AND nrrnnn'rus non HANDLING, sronme, Aim unasunme BULK MATERIAL INTO nn'ronns.

My invention relates to-a method of and apparatus for handling, storing and measuring' bulk materials, the articular material used in connection with the apparatus I will describe being cement, although the apparatus adapts itself just as readily to many other materials.- I aim toeconomically handle and.

measure out bulk material into batches, to

arrange the various parts of the apparatus 0 for eficient operation and to eliminate waste whereby the use of bulk material is made cheaper, more practicable, more convenient and less dusty. I aim also to pnovide an apparatus in which uniform quantities of 5 material of any predetermined value may be accurately measured out from a source of bulk material and in which the amount to be measured may be varied as desired. The parts of the.device are serially arranged in I such a manner that measuring out batches may continue even should the source of'siipply be .cut off or should the associated mechanism fail.

The desirability of handling material such [as cement, in bulk, has been demonstrated by contractors occasionally shipping it in bulk, without sacks or containers and in measuring into batches at the job. However, this practice ,has not hitherto become general, owing to .difiiciilties in handling, storing and measuring the cement. The more common practice, however, prior to my invention has been to use cement that has been weighed and sacked, a sack supposedly containing 1- cubic foot by bulk measurement and weighing about 97 pounds. In making concrete the general practice has been to specify the proportions of the mixture of the variousingredients by volume on the basis of the contents of a sack (1 cu. ft). My invention makes it feasible to measure out accurately quantities. of cement not necessarily multiplies of 1 cubic foot as has hitherto been the'practice, and to accomplish such measuring rapidly amounts or in varying amounts. The economy of handling cement in'bulk, may well be realized when the cost of bag ging is taken into consideration. The cost of the cloth sacks used for bagging cement,

Lpplication filed June 3,

either in uniform 1924. Serial No. 717,535.

at present day prices, runs to about one fourth of the cost of the cement they contain. In addition is added the cost of cleaning, packing, shipping, accounting for empty sacks to be returned to the mill, extra freight both going and coming and sack losses and depreciation, all of which are eliminated by the use of my a paratus.

I provide a complete equipment for taking cement from the point of unloading, to the place of measurement, or to storage, Or to take it from storage to measurement, and for conveniently dumping the measured batch into a mixer or truck with practically no rehandling.

How these? and other advantages can be realized through my invention will appear from my descriptionhereinafter of the best way of carrying out the invention known to In the drawings Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section'thru a system. of apparatus convenlent-for the purposes of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the .weighing device used in connection. with my apparatus; w Y I Fig. 41's an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the endless conveyor, showmg the position of the conveyor elements or buckets when in the upper stretch of the enclosing channel;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the endless conveyor ,showing the position of the conveyor elements or buckets when in the upright stretch of the enclosing channel; i 1 Fig. (i -is an enlarged sectional view of a portion' of the endless conveyor taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 7and showing the position of the conveyor elements or buckets when in the lower stretch of the enclosing channel; f

Fig. 7 is a planview of Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is an end view of Fig; 6 lookin 95 toward the left, and Fig. 9 is. a detailed section taken on line 9- 9 of Fig. 1.

The car containing the bulk material is indicated at 1', from which the'material is.

fed over the gang way or removable apron 2, to screw conveyor 3 extending transversely of the apparatus, which conveyor discharges the material into the compartment 4, where it is picked up by the conveyor elements or buckets 5., of the endless conveyor 6 and carried in upward flight thru the upright stretch 7 of the dustproof enclosing channel 8. The conveyor then takes a substantially horizontal course thru the upper stretch 9 of the channel 8 in the direction of the arrow, the'material in the conveyor elements being discharged bygravity into the charging bin or hopper 10 which, in this instance, is shown of limited size where it accumulates until drawn off by the measuring device indicated as a whole by the reference character A. WVhen the charging hopper becomes filled with material, the surplus is drag scraped along by the conveyor elements or buckets 5 and d scharged by gravity into the storage bin 11,

- which may be of acapacity to hold several v carloads of material.

The buckets then take a downward course thru the stretch 12 of the enclosing channel 8, then a substantially horizontal course thru the lower stretch 13 to the place of beginning. 7

It will be seen that by this arrangement the material is handled and deposited at the various stations while being continuously fed to the apparatus from the source of supply,

the surplus when the charging hopper 10 is full being'carried over to the-storage bin 11. After the source of supply is enhausted or shut off for any reason, the charging hop- .per is supplied or recharged with material from the storage bin in a manner which will appear hereinafter. Extending thru the and finally weighing ofi' batches may continue without interruption while waiting for a new supply.

The convenient construction of the conveyor elements forms an important part of this invention, it being apparent that ordinary buckets would not function to perform the various duties required of them in making the circuit, namely .of acting as buckets in their upward flight in the upright stretch of the channel, of acting as drag scrapers discharging the material by gravity and scraping along surplus material in their horizontal flight along theupper stretch and of acting as scoops to scoop and pick up material discharged from the storage bin in their horizontal flight along the lower stretch. IVhen traveling upward the con veyor elements are in a pendant position and act as ordinary buckets, best shown in Fig. 5. When traveling in a horizontal plane in the direction of the arrow, along the upper stretch they lean on one face as best shown in Figs. 1 and 4:, the slope of the scraping face 16 being such that the material will discharge by gravity when they pass over the opening 17 in the charging hopper and the opening 18 in the storage bin. Vhen traveling in a horizontalplane in the direction ofthe arrowfiffdng the lower stretch they lean on the other face as best shown in Figs. 1 and 6, the faces 16 and 16 forming a scoop. As shown the conveyor consists of two ordinary link sprocket chainsspaced apart with the conveyor elements mounted between them'by means of' the shafts or pivot pins 19.

In the particular construction shown the conveyor elements 5, comprise sides 19 and a pocketed body 5 of V shape mounted to swing on the pivot pin 19 away from the It is to be noted that pin 19 and the apex 19 ofthe V body as will cause the face 16 to act as a drag scraper when traveling horizontally with the face 16 down; while the other face 16 is at such angle with said plane aswill cause it to act vided a clutch on this shaftso that the conveyor 3 may be stopped and started at the operators will. The shaft 23 has another snrocket 26 secured thereto which thru the medium of the chain 27 and sprocket 28 drives the feed screw 29 which feeds material from the bhargin hopper 10 to the measuring device A. It is to be understood, however, ,that the various conveyors might be driven separately without departing from the principles of this invention.

' The measuring device A which I prefer is a scale for weighing the batch, although a bulk measuring. devlce might be used in some instances Furthermore I have shown adial scale although in some cases it may be found more convenient to use a beam scale. The operation of the measuring device is as follows: The feed screw 29 is startedbv throwing in the hand operated clutch 30 which feeds material 'from the charging bin or hopper to "the container 31, and continues to feed until the pointer 32 of the scale 33 (see Fig. 3) makes contact with contact member 34 which is set adjacent the marking on the scale dial indicating the required amount of material desired to be measured out. The container 31 is provided with gates3l for discharging the measured batch. Making of the contact completes a circuit that ener zes the eleccombination a source of supply,

. material, a conveyor for delivering material tromagnet35 which attracts t ebar 36 and releases the lever 37 which is connected to the clutch 30 by means of link 38. When the lever .37 is thus released the spring 39 pulls the clutch out of engagement, stopping the feed screw until the operator again throws in the clutch. I have shown an emergency lever 40 which may be operated to release .the lever 37 should it be desired to disconnect the magnettemporarily orto weigh out batches short of the set we1ght. The contact member is'capable of adjust ment and may be set to measure out varied quantities of material.

lln brief. the measuring device'is a device capable of being Started by hand and of being automatically stopped when a predetermined amount of material is measured out, with means for measurin short batches if desired without interfering with the setting of the automatic stopping means.

lit is to be understood that while I have shown the complete invention in one preterred arrangement, many variations may be made as pointed out from time to time in the specification or as convenience and space may necessitate without departing from the scope of'thisinvention.

lclaim:

1. Apparatus for handling, storing and apportioning bulk material, comprising in a charging hopper, a measuring device, a storage bin, an endless conveyor for distributing the from the source of supply to the endless conveyor, a. conveyor for delivering material from the charging hop e'i' to the measuring device and a common drive for the various conveyors. a

2. Apparatus for handling, storing and apportioning bulk material, comprising in combination a source of supply, a charging hopper, a measuring device, a storage bin, an endless conveyor for distributing the material, a conveyor for delivering material from thesource of supply to the endless conveyor, a conveyor for delivering material from the charging hopper to the measuring device, means for disconnecting the source of a supply and means for disconnecting the last mentioned conveyor.

Tmeasuring bulk material into receiving the surplus ply, a charging bin,

' bin 3. Apparatus for handling, storing and apportioning bulk material, comprising in combination a source of supply, a charging hopper, a measuring device, a storage bin, an endless conveyor for distributing the material, a conveyor for delivering material from the source of supply to the endless conveyor, a conveyor for deliveringmaterial from the charging hopper to the measuring device, means for disconnecting the source of supply and means automatically controlled by the measuring device for disconnecting the last mentioned conveyor.

etApparatus for handling, storing and measuring bulk material into batches comprising in combination with a source of supply, a charging hop er, a storage bin,a measuring device an an endless conveyor for distributing the material, a tunnel thru the lower part of the storage bin having end doors for passage thru the tunnel, one of said doors being adjacent themeasuring device, and gate controlled openings in the tunnel walls for discharging material from the storage bin.

5. Apparatus for handling, storing and measuring bulk material into batches comprising, in combination, a source of supply, a charging hopper, a storage bin, and an endless conveyor for charging the hopper to full capacity prior to conveymg the surplus material to the storage bin, the chargin hopper being located intermediate the source of supply and the storage bin.

6. Apparatus for handling,

batches comprising in combination with a source of suply, a charging bin for receiving material om the source of supply, a storage bin for material from the charging bin, means for conveying material from the storage hopper to the charging bin, a measuring device, means for feeding material from said hopper to said measuring device, and means operable to automatically interrupt said feeding means when the ma- "terial in said measuring device reaches a predetermined. amount.

7. Apparatus for handling, storing and measuring bull; material into batches comprising in combinationwith a source of su char 'ng bin filled with material, a storage or receiving surplus material from the charging bin, a weighing device for weighing on uniform batches ofmaterial, means for uniformly feeding material .from the charging bin to the weighing device and adjustable means on the weighing device for shutting ofi desired amount of material is weighed oil.

8. In an apparatus for handling and measuring bulk material into batches the combination with the source of supply of a means tor keeping t e,

the feeding means when the storing and v means being operable tostop said feed screw when the material in said measuring device reaches a predetermined amount- In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed'my name.

WILLIAM M. VENABLE. 

